Enabling youth workers to improve their training programmes by introducing IP rights in their STEAM learning approaches

Background According to a publication on the future of work in the EU, occupations in the fields of STEM and Arts (STEAM), are estimated to grow by 20% and 33%, respectively, creating together nearly 6 million new positions in Europe by 2030 (McKinsey, 2020). Even though STEAM education is widespread, the way it is taught at schools is sometimes not related to the actual needs of STEAM skills required in the labour market. Essential elements seem to be entirely or partially missing from current educational curricula with Intellectual Property (IP), referring to patents, designs, confidentiality/privacy/trade secrets, plagiarism, trademarks and copyrights, as the most apparent ones (OHIM, 2015). Therefore, the scope of the project was to cover an identified need present in STEAM and entrepreneurship programmes concerning the lack of educating young people on IP concepts. While numerous projects focus on STEAM and youth entrepreneurship, only a few incorporate concepts of IP leaving the young people incompetent to understand and respond to such issues. IP education could allow young people to acquire skills and competences on IP, comprehend its potential to produce income and economic growth as well as respect their own and other’s IP Rights Objectives By implementing this project, the consortium aimed at addressing the following objectives: - Raise awareness about IP among youth workers; - Develop a Serious Game for promoting, educating and gaining hands-on experience on Intellectual Property; - Encourage young people to pursue STEAM or Entrepreneurship career through integrating the notion of IP in Entrepreneurship and STEAM training for youth; - Equip youth workers with an innovative tool and a new thematic to be covered in their training; - Develop a Skill Verification Scheme to validate the learner’s competence in IP and encourage organisations working with youth to integrate IP in their training activities. Implementation To successfully address the objectives of the project, the following activities were implemented: - Training Material: It aimed at equipping youth workers with a ready-to-deliver training material on IP focusing on the concepts of Patent, Design, Copyright and Trademark and highlighting its connection to the STEAM related subjects, youth entrepreneurship and STEAM entrepreneurship; - Game: It focused on the development of a gamified, playful, easy and interactive board for learning the difficult concepts of Intellectual Property; - Skill Verification Scheme: It aimed at providing a comprehensive assessment of the developed learning materials and tools. In addition, Competence Badges for young people completing training activities on IP as well as for organisations offering training activities on aspects of IP have been created; - Training Activity: A training activity was organised in Romania in order to run a full testing cycle of the project’s developed products with the participation of youth workers and trainers from end-user countries; - Multiplier events in Romania, France and Poland were organised in order to promote the results of the project to its target groups and other relevant stakeholders. Achievements The project generated the following outputs and results: Tangible - Training Kit: The Training Material aiming at introducing young people to some basic knowledge on the concepts of Patents, Designs, Trademarks and Copyrights in order to understand the importance of IP in their life. - Game: An online educational board game to navigate young people through the concepts of IP through a fun and educational way. - Skill Verification Scheme: comprising assessments for pre- & post testing, evaluation questionnaire for assessing the training - Competence Badges: corresponding on each of the modules of the Training Kit awarded to learners who successfully complete the assessment; - Inclusion Badge: awarded to organisations incorporating in their activities any of the 4 modules addressed in the Training Kit. Intangible - Increased awareness on IP with emphasis on STEAM and Entrepreneurship job sectors; - Increased knowledge, skills and competences of youth workers and young people participating in the project activities on IP; - Increased competence of youth workers to deliver more comprehensive training programmes; - Organisations equipped with a new concept to be incorporated in their current training programmes